Search age:

Search in:

Carpet seller's unconvincing pitch at ICAC

Eoin Blackwell

Newcastle carpet seller Paul Murphy appeared to have the rug pulled out from under him at a corruption inquiry.

The businessman repeatedly denied at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Tuesday that a local business group, the Newcastle Alliance, funded a 2011 election campaign designed to bring down NSW Labor MP Jodi McKay.

But it was then pointed out to him that his name appeared on leaflets and media releases for the campaign.

The inquiry has heard the Fed Up campaign was partly funded by businessman Nathan Tinkler, who as a developer is banned from donating to NSW political parties.

Advertisement

Mr Murphy said it was a coincidence that $50,000 from Mr Tinkler's company Buildev was sent to the Newcastle Alliance the day before the Fed Up campaign started.

He said the Newcastle Alliance funded the Vote for Real Change campaign and that he had told Fed Up campaigners he wanted nothing to do with them.

However, counsel assisting the commission Geoffrey Watson SC said the Newcastle Alliance chairman's reluctance to work with Fed Up was "just rubbish" and showed a leaflet bearing the words "authorised by Paul Murphy".

Mr Watson also showed a Fed Up media release called "change is in the air", which invited reporters to call Mr Murphy for questions.

In May, the inquiry was shown text messages from Tinkler associate Darren Williams to an unknown recipient, whom Mr Watson named as Mr Tinkler.

"You ok mate if we get some more carpet?" Mr Williams wrote just a fortnight before Ms McKay was rolled by recently-disgraced MP Tim Owen for the seat of Newcastle in 2011.

Ms McKay opposed a controversial coal loader, which the inquiry has heard would have been worth a fortune to Mr Tinkler.

Later on Tuesday, the inquiry heard that corrupt former NSW Labor minister Joe Tripodi told a local printer and close friend to "keep him out of it" when the press started asking questions about a smear campaign against Ms McKay.

"Try (and) keep me out of it as much as possible," Mr Tripodi allegedly told Vincent Fedele.

Mr Fedele and his media company, Mesh Media, printed flyers claiming 1000 trucks would be on Newcastle's roads as a result of Ms McKay's opposition to a coal loading terminal proposed by Mr Tinkler's Buildev.

Ms McKay broke down in tears earlier this year when informed at the ICAC that Mr Tripodi had worked against her.